Permanent waving apparatus



June 28, 1938. E. F. sUTr-:R 2,122,163

PERMANENT WAVING APPARATUS Filed Jan. 6. 1936 i fig!!! @libia-.ii

ATTORN EYS @munlllllumnz Patented June 228., 1938 PATENT OFFiCE PERMANENT WAVING APPARATUS Eugne F. Suter, New

York, N. Y., assigner to Eugene Ltd., New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application January 6, 1936, Serial No. 57,644

2 Claims.

The invention relates to new and useful im provements in method and means for heating wound tresses of hair in permanent waving, and in certain of its features the invention relates more particularly to novel process and means for electrolytically rewaving hair.

Objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part hereinafter and in part will be obvious herefrom, or may be learned by practice with the invention, the same being realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations pointed out in the appended claims.

The invention' consists in the novel parts, constructions, arrangements, combinations and im- Yprovernents herein shown and described.

The accompanying drawing referred to herein and constituting apart hereof, illustrates one embodiment of the invention, and together with the description, serves to explain the principles of the invention.

Of the drawing:-

Fig. l is a plan of a curl heating device embodying the invention;

Fig. 2 is a central longitudinal section of a different form of such a device; and

Fig. 3 shows the waving device applied to a wound tress of hair in the permanent waving process.

Objects of the invention are to provide a process and means for Variably treating the different parts of wound tresses of hair in permanent waving and more especially for giving different amounts of treatment in rewaving the hair, whereby the new and thicker hair nearest the scalp is heated more than the hair which had been previously subjected to the permanent waving process; to provide such a process and means especially adapted for use in or with the electrolytic process of permanent waving such as is described and claimed in U. S. No. 2,014,246 to Durham and Finnegan, dated September l0, 1935, although in certain of its features the present invention is useful in or with other processes of permanent waving; to provide such a process and means which in certain respects is especially applicable or useful when the heating means and the solution-carrying means are unitary or integral; and in accordance with certain features of the invention it is preferably embodied in an electrolytic curl-treating device such as is disclosed in the above-mentioned patent. The in vention pursuant to certain of its features employs the curl-treating solution as an electrolyte and varies the electrolytic action along the curl so that the new hair gets a greater amount of treatment than the old, and this is preferably effected by decreasing the electrical conductivity outwardly along the curl, or at the outward part of the curl, although the decreased action for the older hair may in some respects be otherwise obtained.

The graduated curl-treating means of the invention is shown as exemplarily embodied in an electrolytic device having fieXible electrodes, the device being deformable so as to conform to the shape of the curl and to form a vapor chamber thereabout. Said device is shown in open form capacitated to be wrapped about a wound tress and then conformed to the shape of the tress as described, and is also shown of tubular form adapted to be slipped endwise over the tress as wound on the curling rod, and in this instance also the device is preferably deformed and closed about the curl as already described.

It will be understood that the foregoing general description and the following detailed description as Well are exemplary and illustrative but are not restrictive of the invention.

Referring now in detail to the accompanying drawing, which exemplarily shows the invention, an electrolytic curl-treating device of the type or form which is wrapped about a tress wound on a curling rod is shown in Fig. 1. In this illustrated form, a sheet or layer l of absorbent material is provided, which is an electrical insulator when dry and is electrolytically conducting when saturated with an electrolytically conducting hair waving solution. Various materials of this kind may be employed for the member l, which acts as an absorbent and a carrier for the electrolyte waving solution, among the suitable materials being felt or flannel or cotton which has preferably been previously treated to increase its absorptive capacity. The sheet l is preferably slightly longer than the length of a long, wound tress ready for heating, and is slightly wider than the circumference of such a tress so that when the wound tress has been enclosed in the sheet it is completely covered thereby.

An inner electrode is provided preferably as a sheet 2 of metallic foil on the inner face of the absorbent sheet I, and the sheet 2 is somel what narrower than the absorbent sheet l, and the side edge portions 3 and 4 of the sheet I project beyond the electrode 2, thereby insuring that the electrode 2 will be completely insulated when the pad is wound about the curl. The sheet 2 is placed so that a portion 5 of the absorbent sheet l is below the lower end of sheet 2, that is,

near the customers scalp, and as no current passes through this projecting portion 5 during the heating process, the electrolyte in the portion 5 is cooler and operates as a safeguard against burning the scalp. At its outer end, the electrode sheet 2 projects beyond the top of the absorbent sheet I, so as to conveniently afford a terminal for the circuit. Usually the interior surface of the electrode 2 is insulated from the enclosed tress, and there is shown for this purpose a sheet 6 of thin parchment paper adherent upon the inner surface of the electrode 2. The electrode and insulating sheet must be Vapor pervious to permit the vapor from the electrolyte to penetrate the curl, and for this purpose both sheets are perforated .as shown at 1.

The exterior electrode is shown as a sheet II of metal foil on the outer side of the absorbent sheet I, the electrolyte carrying sheet I and the two electrodes, one on the inside and the otherr on the outside of the absorbent sheet I, being fastened together in any suitable manner, The sheet II only partially overlaps the sheet I, and is so placed relatively thereto that when the device is wrapped about the curl, the sheet II constitutes a complete and continuous outer envelope about the curl heating device. A portion I2 of the absorbent sheet I extends outwardly at the top beyond the outer edge of the sheet II so that it will serve as an insulator between the two electrodes. The sheet II preferably extends at its bottom or inner end beyond the part 5 of the sheet I, so that this inner end of the sheet II may be crimped about the tress near the scalp and thus serve as a closure about the tress to retain the vapor and prevent it reaching the scalp.

The embodied form of means for securing a greater amount or degree of treatment for the new hair at the inner part of the curl in the present embodiment effects this by creating and maintaining greater electrolytic action at the inner or lower part of the curl, and for this purpose the curl heating device has greater electrical conductivity at the inner part and less at the outer part. This difference in conductivity may be graduated longitudinally of the device, or it may be in practically two stages, one of greater conductivity and one of less conductivity, the change being located at about the usual or average distance that the hair has grown out by the time the rewave is made. The difference in conductivity is preferably effected by treating the outer electrode I I to effect the desired purpose, and this may be done in a variety of ways and broadly it is preferably effected by decreasing the conductive area of the electrode at its outer end without decreasing the over all size of the electrode, that is, without changing the size or mechanical features of the heater device. As exemplified, this has been done by perforations I4 formed in the outer part of the electrode I`I.

The same result can be accomplished in other r ways, as by applying some non-conductive adhesive as a coating on more or less of the inner face of the electrode II, sodium silicate being one example of such an adhesive. Likewise, a perforated strip of paper could be attached to a portion of the inner surface of electrode II, which would permit contact or communication between the electrode and the electrolyte only in the open parts of the paper. Other means for effecting the same end might be used if desired. By using the perforate outer electrode as shown, emission of a certain amount of vapor through the openings occurs, and this additionally operates to reduce the amount of heating and treatment of the old hair at the outer part of the curl, but if the emission of vapor should be found undesirable or disadvantageous in any case, the conductivity could be lessened in some of the other ways described or indicated, Whereby perforation of the outer electrode would be obviated.

The heating device is applied to a tress wound on a curling rod by wrapping it about the wound tress in the usual manner, and a wrapped curl ready for steaming is substantially represented in Fig. 3 of the drawing. In that figure the tress I1 has been wound spirally on a curling rod I8 in the usual manner and a heating device, such as shown in Fig. l, has been wrapped and closed about the Wound tress with the inner or bottom part on the electrode II crimped or compressed about the tress close to the scalp. An additional shield to protect the scalp may be ernployed but is omitted from the drawing. A source of electrical energy is shown diagrammatically, with a transformer I9 and terminals 2D and ZI connected respectively to the electrodes II and 2L Heating devices of this type are highly advantageous in that they use an electrolytic of very low voltage which is not harmful to humans.

In Fig. 2 of the drawing a curl heating device of tubular form is shown having the general structure, characteristics and functions of the flat device previously described, and the same reference numerals have been applied thereto without further description. This tubular form slips over the end of the wound tress, and it is usually preferable and more eflicacious to construct the tube so that it may be deformed or crushed about the curl, approximately as shown in Fig. 3, which is possible when the electrodes are made from sheets of metal foil.

The invention in its broader aspects is not limited to the specific mechanisms shown and described but departures may be made therefrom within the scope of the accompanying claims without departing from the principles of the invention and without sacrificing its chief advantages.

What I claim is:

1. A curl heating device for permanently waving hair comprising a sheet of absorbent material adapted to hold an electrolyte, an inner electrode sheet which is vapor pervious, an outer electrode sheet, and means for causing less electrical conductivity at one end of the device and greater conductivity at the other end of said device, comprising a plurality of perforations in the cuter electrode sheet near one end thereof.

2. A curl heating device for permanently waving hair comprising a sheet of absorbent material adapted to hold an electrolyte, an inner electrode sheet terminating short of the inner end of said absorbent sheet, an outer electrode sheet and means for causing less electrical conductivity near the outer end of said device, comprising a` plurality of perforations in the outer electrode near the outer end thereof.

EUGNE F. SUTER. 

